A reader's journal sharing the insights of various authors and my take on a variety of topics, most often philosophy, religion & spirituality, politics, history, economics, and works of literature. Come to think of it, diet and health, too!

Monday, March 30, 2015

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

It is
the way and the Waygoer. It is the eternal road along which walk all beings,
but no being made it, for itself is being. It is everything and nothing. From
it all things spring, all things conform to it, and to it at last all things
return. It is a square without angles, a sound which ears cannot hear, and an
image without form. It is a vast net and though its meshes are as wide as the
sea it lets nothing through. It is the sanctuary where all things find refuge.
It is nowhere, but without looking out of the window you may see it. Desire not
to desire, it teaches, and leave all things to take their course. He that
humbles himself shall be preserved entire. He that bends shall be made
straight. Failure is the foundation of success and success is the lurking-place
of failure; but who can tell when the turning point will come? Who strives
after tenderness can become even as a little child. Gentleness brings victory
to him who attacks and safety to him who defends. Mighty is he who conquers
himself.

I
finally realized the long-held intention to read a novel by W. Somerset
Maugham. The Painted Veil proved an
excellent introduction. It is a novel about a vain young British woman in the
1920s, Kitty, who whimsically marries an intense, introverted physician,
Walter. She follows him to Hong Kong, where she becomes embroiled in an affair.
After discovering the affair, Walter takes Kitty to the interior of China where
he works to defeat a cholera epidemic. The novel focuses on the education of
Kitty through her relationships and through her observations of alien worlds.

Maugham
is an older contemporary of Graham Greene, with whom he may be compared.
Maugham began his writing career before the advent of the First World War and
published his most acclaimed work, Of
Human Bondage, in 1915. He continued publish well past the Second World
War. Thus, The Painted Veil is a
mid-career work for him. Like Greene and many British writers of their time,
Maugham traveled a great deal and used his travels as settings for his novels
(as well as writing travel books). In this work, set in Hong Kong and the
Chinese interior, China becomes more of a stage prop than I would hope or
expect, at least if written today. No Chinese characters receive any depth of
portraiture. But since the story centers on Kitty and placement of her in the
Chinese interior serves to isolate and alienate her from the much more
Anglicized setting of Hong Kong. Indeed, the significant others for Kitty when
she travels to the interior are Walter, a fellow Englishman, Waddington, and a
group of French nuns, of whom the Mother Superior becomes an important figure
for Kitty.

The
novel grabbed my attention because it focused on Kitty, a vain young woman, who
undergoes a variety of trials. It amazed me how well Maugham portrayed Kitty in
her vanity and her struggles to come to terms with herself and her world. The
men in this novel are enigmatic, as is the aloof and challenging Mother
Superior of the local convent. But this allows us to share the perspective of
Kitty, who must deal with these complicated Others.

I
enjoyed this novel a good deal. While I would've liked to of seeing more of the
China drawn into the story, that was not Maugham's primary intent, nor was it
necessary to tell Kitty's story.

Above,
I've included a quote delivered by Kitty's friend, Waddington, about the Tao. I
find it an interesting quote, but this is about as deeply as Maugham ventures
into Chinese culture.

Maugham
once described himself as among the front row of second-tier writers. He's not
among the avant-garde of the 20th century, and I think that Graham Greene has a
greater, richer body of work. However, Maugham’s work, at least based on this
sample, deserves recognition. Based on The
Painted Veil, I look forward to reading other works by Maugham.

About Me

I am currently living in Bucharest, Romania with my wife. I offer services as a freelance lawyer to other lawyers in the U.S. and abroad. I also blog @ http://sngabroad.blogspot.com and at http://greenleafadvocacy.com/persuasive-life-blog/